


RoyDick week Day 6 - Batman!Dick

by GoddessofRoyalty



Series: RoyDick week 2019 [5]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Dick Grayson is Batman, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 09:18:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18688585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoddessofRoyalty/pseuds/GoddessofRoyalty





	RoyDick week Day 6 - Batman!Dick

The way the cowl sits on his head is still something Dick is incredibly conscious of. A physical reminder of the legacy he is carrying on his shoulders. A reminder that Gotham is now primarily his responsibility.

He doesn't know how Bruce did it for all those years.

But Gotham needs Batman. Damian needs Batman. And Dick is the only one able to take up the mantle. So he dons the cowl and swings through the city with his newly gained Robin and tries to figure out the rest as he goes.

Oracle sends a message through that someone wants to see him so Dick follows where she leads and is only a little surprised to see Arsenal standing on the rooftop. It's not like he never steps foot in Gotham, just it's not usual. And certainly it isn’t usual for him to be contacting Oracle to send a message to Batman.

"What do you need me for?" Dick asks after landing on the roof. It turns out it's really hard to be Batman around his friends, and going by the raised eyebrow he gets for it, Roy isn't buying the act one bit. Or finds it funny. Probably the latter knowing Roy.

"Just wanted to see if it was true. That you really were stupid enough to decide to take his spot," Roy says with an idle walk over to Dick. And Dick's glad Damian had peeled off before Dick arrived because he has a feeling it wouldn't have ended well for him to be here for this conversation.

"I didn't have a choice." Barbara had made that clear. Jason had made that clear. Gotham needs a Batman and there just wasn't anyone else currently able to take it up, as much as there were those willing.

"Yeah and do you actually believe that?" Roy asks walking closer still.

"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't." Really this was the last thing he wanted. In some ways is something he had nightmares about only weeks before - becoming exactly like Bruce. But Gotham needs Batman.

Roy gives a snort because he clearly doesn't believe it but walks that bit closer so he's standing in Dick's space. "I have to say at least you look better than he did."

"What?" It's probably fine that Roy is able to make Dick break his Batman character. Roy knows Dick and how to poke at him to make him break and the performance is still only in its early days. A lot of practice to be had until he perfects his new role.  

"You know what I said." And Roy is closer still and Dick knows he should probably step away but he doesn't want to. This is a game they've been playing for years - does this suit make it any different? "Might have asked you to wear it for me earlier if I had of known how you would look in it."

"Roy-" This is probably too far. Disrespectful to Bruce's memory for his suit, his mantle, to be reduced to something just to flirt and play with.

"Come on Rob," Roy says and he's closer again and Dick can feel the breath off lips. Suddenly aware of the only skin of his own that is bare. "Don't tell me the cowl's already gotten into your head and rewired you to have no fun on the job ever."

Roy closes the slim distance between his and Dick's lips. The kiss he gives far from chaste. And it should be fine - it's not like Bruce never made out with anyone in the suit. Dick was well old enough to know what he and Catwoman got up to at times in _their_ game. The suit not actually a sacred thing that cannot be defiled by anything sexual.

But it feels wrong.

He pushes Roy off with earns him a frown but he doesn't care because they can't keep doing this anymore. "Roy we can't."

"Oh come on!" Roy says, his face twisting into familiar annoyance. "You've only been in it for like three days and you already have let it get to you - for fucks sake man you're not actually _him_."

"I know." Dick will never be Bruce. Never fully able to live up to the importance and success Bruce had built up as Batman. That's why he had become Nightwing - to find where he sat in the world. "But I have to try."

"That doesn't mean you have to become him you know. You can still be you."

"Ro- Arsenal I can't." He understands why Roy doesn't fully get it. As much as Oliver was his mentor and a parental figure, Roy never felt as indebted to him as Dick did Bruce. Wally would probably understand but this isn't Wally he's talking to.

"Of fucking course. I should have known," Roy says. He backs off and that just hurts because Dick doesn't want to lose him. But on the other hand he should probably encourage this level of boundaries. Batman really shouldn't be caught so close with Arsenal considering how little the two of them had been together in the past. If people see they might figure out that it's a different person under the cowl and that will only cause more problems.

"Arsenal." He needs to be more like Batman. Needs to treat his allies as just that - allies. And not the close friends, or hell, family, they actually were to him. He needs to be like Batman not Nightwing, because he is Batman now.

"No, you know what, fuck it. I got what I wanted, and it's clear you don't want to know me anymore now you got your promotion. So I'm just going to leave you be and I guess I'll see you the next time the world ends and the Justice League calls everyone in."

Roy is off the rooftop before Dick has a chance to retort. And before Dick even has a chance to process it he hears Damian landing behind him - which, great.

"How much of that were you listening in to?"

"Enough," Damian says walking over and Dick can tell he's pissed. "What were you thinking? I thought you were taking this mantle to honour my father's memory, not sully it by playing around with some halftime hero."

Dick resists the urge to point out that Roy has been in this gig for longer than Damian has been alive because he knows it will be pointless. There is a lot of ego he has to work through with the kid to get him to realise that they're all actually in this together and not in competition for who is the best. The best hero. The best Robin. The best Batman.

It's about honouring legacy not being better.

Although Dick's doing a shit job at both.

"Come on Robin, we can't just stand on a rooftop all night." At least not unless there's a good reason to be on it. And as much as brooding is something both Batman and Dick have been known to do it's probably not a habit Dick should really get into for at least a couple of weeks on the job. It wouldn't be a good impression to give to Damian.

Plus, Gotham needs her Batman out protecting her. He can brood over what he has to sacrifice for it later.

 

* * *

 

 

Waking in the Wayne manor isn't that weird. Dick did sleep over from time to time when there was a long case and Bruce needed him immediately around.

Waking in the Wayne manor and knowing that this is where he will likely be waking for the next foreseeable forever? Slightly weirder.

Still, Dick made his choice and he isn't going to go back on it. So he gets out of bed, steps around the boxes of his stuff that he still means to unpack, and makes his way downstairs for breakfast.

He really doesn't expect to see Roy in his kitchen trying to plead off Alfred feeding him breakfast. Honestly, Dick didn't think he'd see Roy until the next world ending crisis after what went down last night.

"Roy?"

"So you're finally awake?" Roy asks because he’s probably been up a few hours now. It's strange to think that fatherhood turned Roy into an earlier riser than Dick.

"I don't know if I'd call it that until I get some caffeine in me. Alfred?"

"Right away Master Richard," Alfred says, "and also some breakfast."

"I'm fine - where's Damian?"

"I insist," Alfred says with the tone that means there is absolutely no arguing the point. "Master Damian is working through his school work in his room. I shall ensure he does not come bother you both."

"Thanks." Dick sits on the other end of the kitchen counter to Roy. And even after he's had his coffee and a plate of food place in front of him he still finds himself trying to avoid catching Roy's eyes. He doesn't know why Roy is here and doesn't feel ready for another round after last night.

"The kid keeping you tired?" Roy asks as if it didn't happen. And Dick is more than happy to play pretend with him for now.

"He's a bit of a handful." Understatement of the year, but this is Dick's lot in life now and there isn't any point wallowing in how much of a handful Bruce's son can be seeing at the end of the day Damian is still Bruce's son and Dick the only one who is able to keep him from going back to Talia.

"He seems it," Roy says.

They sit in silence for probably way too long. And Dick can't even pretend it's because he's too busy eating to talk seeing as how he isn't actually that hungry and more plays with the food on his plate than eats it. But he doesn't know what to say and doesn't want to be the one to bring up last night.

"Look, I was a bit of an ass last night," Roy says after what is probably way too long for them to both be pretending it wasn't what they were going to be talking about.

"Yeah?" Dick isn't going to argue it and he isn't ready to admit that he did anything wrong yet either. Because he didn't... really. Batman can't be out doing that.

"Yeah, uh, I get that this is probably a lot to take in for you, and I guess I just wanted to give you a bit of normalcy again but I probably went about it the wrong way. I'm sorry I lashed out."

"It's fine, I get it. It's a bit of a change for all of us." Not just for Dick and those immediately close to Bruce, but everyone who knew Batman or Nightwing. How long will Dick actually be able to hide it from everyone that it's someone else under the cowl than original?

How much does he actually want to hide it?

"I stand by my point that you don't have to be exactly him about it. Sure, to the public you have to be Batman, but you can still be your version of Batman and not his."

"And what's my version of Batman?"

"I can't tell you that. It's for you to figure out," Roy says and he gets up from his chair to walk over to Dick's side of the counter. Making it all the more harder for Dick to avoid the conversation. "And I don't want us to be not talking when you do."

"We still can't be seen out together when I'm Batman."

"Why 'cause Batman can't be gay?"

"What? No, Roy-" Technically even if it was going by Dick's orientation Batman still wouldn't be gay but Dick knows that isn't what Roy meant.

"I'm joking, come on Rob, I do get it - Batman can't be seen as fraternising with other superheroes. He's only allowed to do that with morally questionable villanesses. The closest he'll ever get with one of his own is admitting that maybe, just maybe, Superman might be a friend."

"Can we stop talking about his romantic life, please." It feels disrespectful to Bruce’s memory even if it’s true.

"Fine, if you insist. But what I'm saying is that it's fine that Batman can't suddenly be all buddy-buddy with Arsenal, but Dick Grayson's still allowed to be close with Roy Harper. And you're still Dick Grayson when you don't have the cowl on right - he hasn't like somehow done a conscious swap or something?"

"You tell me?" Dick says and finally looks up at Roy only to lean up to kiss him.

It's weird. Two months ago there is no way Dick would believe he would be making out with Roy around the counter of the Wayne Manor over breakfast. He wouldn't believe he would ever take up the mantle of the Batman. He wouldn't believe he would ever have a sidekick of his own. But here he is making out with Roy over the counter of the Wayne manor after a night of running around the city as Batman training a new Robin.

“So?” Dick asks when they pull away.

“I’m pretty sure Bruce would never do that with me,” Roy says with a grin. “But I mean always better to double-check.”

He closes the distance between them again and Dick isn’t against his ‘precaution’ in this situation.

“Alright I’m satisfied, it’s still all you up there Rob,” Roy says when they separate again. “That doesn’t mean you get off and get to be an idiot who forgets he has friends to help him. You need to talk to us Dick, we’re here for you.”

“I know.” He does. It’s just that there are some things he can’t lean on his friends for. And this is one of them. Still, it’s nice to know that he has someone who he can just be Dick Grayson around without worrying about also being Batman.


End file.
